The Northern Iranian Central Plateau at the End of the Pleistocene and Early Holocene: The Emergence of Domestication
Résumé
Until recently, the Iranian Central Plateau (ICP) was considered to have been
unoccupied at the end of the Pleistocene (Marshall 2012 in ‘Missing Links: Demic
Diffusion and the Development of Agriculture on the Central Iranian Plateau’.
Durham University e-Theses. http://ethes es.dur.ac.uk/3547/), raising questions about
the mechanisms that drove Neolithic diffusion in this area. However, recent field data
has provided new insights into the rise of domestication here. Reassessment of the
local chronology during the Early Holocene reveals consistent occupation of the ICP
throughout the Epipaleolithic/Mesolithic. Plant and animal remains indicate that
Mesolithic communities preserved a purely foraging lifestyle, yet data for the Early
Neolithic shows that communities produced fully domesticated resources. This clear
economic rupture suggests the introduction of farming technologies from other
regions. Additionally, the central geographic position of the ICP between the Zagros
and western Central Asia, and the correspondence in material culture between the
eastern sites of the ICP and the Zagros suggest that the region was a hot spot of connections favourable to the eastward diffusion of the Neolithic.
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